Pietersen believes England's lack of weakness has the world in fear

Kevin Pietersen believes the rest of world cricket may soon become fearful of playing against England.

Andrew Strauss' team took their country to the top of the International Cricket Council rankings for the first time when they trounced previous incumbents India by an innings at Edgbaston on Saturday.

This week, they have the chance to complete a 4-0 npower series whitewash of those opponents at The Oval, as they seek to prove their world-beating status is well-merited.

Jumping for joy: Kevin Pietersen celebrates catching Shanthakumaran Sreesanth off the bowling of Tim Bresnan to win the third test

Good knock: Pietersen celebrates his half century during his innings of 63

Asked if future opponents may have good reason to fear England, Pietersen said: 'Potentially yes.'

He sees no weak links in a squad - which, it was announced on Sunday morning, will head for London unchanged from their success in Birmingham.

'You look at that engine room - (from) Matty Prior down to number 10, those guys there can score 150 runs and take the gamne away from you - we've seen it a couple of times already in this series.

'If we get ourselves into a bit of a hole at 120 for five or 80 for five we can still get 250-300 - and then back our bowlers to do the business.'

There is a fine line between confidence and complacency, and Pietersen is convinced England are striking the perfect balance.

'I think you've got a lot of experience and you've got guys who - it's wrong to say are certain of their places - but have done enough in this team to be sure of their own games,' he said.

'They warrant being selected through a bad run of form, to keep getting the backing of selectors because they have done so well over the last however many years.

Strong with the ball: James Anderson took six wickets in the third test

'When you have that confidence behind you as a player, you're not so worried about your place; you're really, really worried about doing your job well - and also if someone else does well, there's no jealousy.'

That one-for-all mentality has been stressed over and over again by captain Strauss and coach Andy Flower throughout the past two-and-a-half years - and like his team-mates, Pietersen too is `on message`.

'There's no jealousy in our dressing-room,' he said.

And with the bat: Alistair Cook's score of 294 set England on their way to victory

'If Cooky [Alastair Cook] does well, like he did in the last Test, it's absolutely amazing and you can feel it from me as a person to him - he knows I'm really ecstatic.

'When I hit a double-hundred two weeks ago I knew that everybody in that dressing-room was so happy for me.

'Belly [Ian Bell] at Nottingham, we know that everyone is so happy.

'Bressie [Tim Bresnan], when he comes in, Broady [Stuart Broad] turning games around this series as well, we're all personally so happy - because we're not worried about our own jobs.'

All together now: England celebrate taking and unassailable 3-0 lead to go top of the ICC rankings

Pietersen is hoping too that Strauss' England can remain healthy and achieve even more success.

He said: 'You never know what's around the corner, because we might get four or five injuries this winter - and then we're back to square one again.

'But if we keep this squad of players together there's no reason why we can't keep on playing well.

'If it was going to disappear it would have disappeared after we'd beaten Australia in Australia so convincingly.

'But we've come back - we had a terrible World Cup and then got our heads together for the Test series this summer - and we've won these three Test matches convincingly.'